Chris MacNeil
Christine "Chris" MacNeil is a character from the novel The Exorcist and its film adaptation, portrayed by Ellen Burstyn. Chris is a famous actress temporarily living in Washington, D.C., with her daughter Regan. HIstory Novel Chris MacNeil, who is in Georgetown filming a movie. As Chris finishes her work on the film, Regan begins to become inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances in their rented house, for which Chris attempts to find rational explanations, Regan begins to rapidly undergo disturbing psychological and physical changes: she refuses to eat or sleep, becomes withdrawn and frenetic, and increasingly aggressive and violent. Chris initially mistakes Regan's behavior as a result of repressed anger over her parents' divorce and absent father. After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother, an atheist, turns to a local Jesuit priest for help as Regan's personality becomes increasingly disturbed. Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a crisis of faith coupled with the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession. After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child. Film Regan starts acting strangely after playing with an Ouija board with her imaginary friend "Captain Howdy". Her changed behavior begins with stealing a cookie from the cookie jar before dinner, and quickly afterwards involves abnormal strength & constant swearing. Regan is given Ritalin and a few unpleasant tests, but Dr. Klein and his colleagues find nothing physically wrong with her. One night, having been left in the care of Burke Dennings, Chris's director on a current movie she is filming, Chris returns home to find Burke has died after falling from Regan's bedroom window. Shortly afterwards, a detective named Kindermann pays a visit to Chris and explains Burke was most likely killed before he fell. Chris understands this means that Regan killed him, but manages to get Kindermann to leave without him coming to the same conclusion. After the doctors are unable to confirm a medical or psychiatric diagnosis for Regan, they suggest Regan gets an exorcism as an a kind of 'shock treatment'. A skeptical Chris seeks advice from Father Damien Karras who is also a trained psychiatrist, but losing faith in God after his mother's recent death. Believing Regan's problems are based in mental illness, he agrees to see her as a psychiatrist. Karras is approached by Chris, who asks if Regan will die, which strengthens Karras' resolve to save her. Personality and traits Chris is a gentle mother to Regan and a good friend to her servants but she can also be very aggressive to other people when she start losing her pacience or become desperate and worried, thought she trys to avoid Regan seeing her like that. She seems to be a atheist and probably had passed her beliefs to her daughter. After the events of The Exorcist, she seems to feel guilty, not only for what happened to Regan but also for the deaths of Father Merrin and Damien Karras during the girl`s exorcism. Notes and trivia *Burstyn received a permanent spinal injury during filming. In the sequence where she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, a harness jerked her hard away from the bed. She fell on her coccyx and screamed in pain. *Ellen Burstyn agreed to doing the movie only if her character didn't have to say the scripted line: "I believe in the devil!" The producers agreed to eliminate the utterance. *Geraldine Page turned down the role of the mother that went to Burstyn. *Barbra Streisand declined the role of Chris McNeil. *Lee Remick, Carol Burnett and Raquel Welch were considered to play Chris McNeil. *Jane Fonda was offered the role of Chris MacNeil but declined it. This was during the Vietnam War, when she was notorious for her outspoken radical opinions, and it was rumored she had called the movie "a bunch of capitalist ripoff bulls***". However, in his book "William Peter Blatty on 'The Exorcist' ", the author reported that Fonda visited him personally to tell him the rumor was not true. She told him she had turned down the role because she didn't believe in fairy tales. *Shirley MacLaine turned down the role of Chris Macneill in order to make the similar, though much less successful, The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972). *According to Variety magazine, it was revealed that Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds were contenders for the roles of Regan and Chris MacNeil. * Anne Bancroft was another choice but she was in her first month of pregnancy and was dropped. *Audrey Hepburn was William Friedkin's first choice to play the role of Chris MacNeil, and Warner Brothers supported him because of her good critical/commercial reputation with the studio, but she only agreed to do it if it was filmed in Rome. *In Exorcist 2 The Heretic Ellen Burstyn has turned down repeated offers by the studio. *the screenwriter for Exorcist 2 The Heretic suggested Jane Fonda or Ann-Margret before Boorman decided upon Louise Fletcher who was originally cast as Chris MacNeil when the role was still in the script. *In Exorcist 2 The Heretic Its hard to believe Chris wouldn't come back and check to see how her child is doing though all this chaos. *Despite Ellen Burstyn's repeated refusals of the offer to return for Exorcist 2 The Heretic, most drafts of the screenplay featured Chris in a central role, eventually dying at the end of the film and passing Regan's custody onto Father Lamont. It wasn't until shortly before shooting and Kitty Winn agreeing to return that her role was swapped for that of Sharon. Category:Individuals